The present invention is directed to a gripper of a manipulation device or installation particularly a device or installation used in an industrial robot. The gripper comprises a gripper housing and a clamping arrangement for frictionally engaging and gripping a part.
Grippers of the above mentioned type, which use a tong-like clamping device, are employed, for example, for a manipulation task in the case of handling parts according to a fixed program or for a freely programmable industrial robot. However, these known grippers are not suitable for gripping or seizing cylindrical parts. Thus, for example, shafts or other similar cylindrical parts, which are prepared and stored in racks with their longitudinal axis extending essentially perpendicular to the rack surface area, are difficult to seize by the gripper of an industrial robot. In view of the geometric data of the shaft, only a gripping via frictional engagement is thus possible. Due to the fabrication tolerances of the rack, due to the clearance between the shaft in the receiving bore of the rack which enables a relatively tipping of the shaft in the receiving bore and due to the attainable positional accuracy of the gripper of the industrial robot, position correctors of the gripper are necessary in order to guarantee reliable gripping of the shaft. However, such position corrections cannot be carried out with the known grippers.